With the many different pens available in today's market there is a need to hold whichever type pen the consumer uses at a ergonomically convenient place for convenient access in the working environment, preferably off of the cluttered work surface. Pens with caps present a further problem, that of being misplaced, hidden under papers and other materials on the work surface. Highlighter and marker pens dry out when left with their caps off for extended periods of time. It is also important in storing pens with caps removed that they are not cross stored in different cavity wells where the colors of one pen can contaminate the color of another pen at its tip. Continually removing and resetting caps to keep the tips from drying out on some pens is annoying and sometimes difficult when one is marking multiple pages of documents and using different color pens.
There are numerous patents and prior art associated with pen holders where one-handed operation is desired. U.S. Pat. No. 1,620,529 to Ferris, U.S. Pat. No. 1,641,829 to Sheafer, U.S. Pat. No. 1,641,846 to Fremon, U.S. Pat. No. 1,762,104 to Liddel, U.S. Pat. No. 1,789,439 to Hoix, U.S. Pat. No. 1,804,120 to Sengbusch, U.S. Pat. No. 2,011,040 to Cuthbert, U.S. Pat. No. 2,082,831 to Hansen, U.S. Pat. No. 2,957,270 to Kennamer, U.S. Pat. No. 3,428,380 to Danjczek, U.S. Pat. No. 3,463,323to Riepe, U.S. Pat. No. 3,476,257 to O'Connell, U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,992 to Katz, U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,092 to Boyer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,575 to Mutschler, U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,338 to Kilpatrick, U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,484 to Denman, U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,629 to Caine, U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,549 to Hayduchok, U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,906 to Digiulio, U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,024 to Sahf, U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,243 to Graber, U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,764 to Cima, U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,400 to Feder, U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,539 B1 to Pelaez and US 2004/0060952 to Perlman are examples of such pen holders. Some of the preceding discloses methods of keeping the pen tips from drying out. Most of these examples are limited to one pen size and style. It is apparent that most of these inventions are complex and would be relatively expensive to produce. Further, none of them address any means for storing the pen caps. US 2004/0060952 application to Perlman and U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,549 to Hayduchok discloses a complex means for holding a pen cap so that the pen is always inserted into the cap. This device requires awkward manipulations for installing and as pens snap into the cap this art requires exerted force to remove the pen. U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,862 B1 to Acquaviva also requires the device being held by a wall bracket or a second hand, further it is also relatively expensive to produce requiring foam type material inlayed in the cavity wells. U.S. Pat. No. 3,463,323 to Riepe discloses a complicated device for India ink pens with pen cap receptacles for holding the pens caps, however, this is limited to one type of pen and its specific cap. U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,539 B1 to Pelaez is a simple pen holder limited to one size and style pen and is designed for setting on a horizontal surface only. U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,713 to Belardinelli presents an ingenious device for storing pens and other desktop articles but does not address storing pen caps or any method to keep marker and highlighter pens from drying out.
Heretofore, no device has been created to fulfill the need for a pen holder that accommodates different size pens, different styles of pens, be placed or mounted on any plane surface from horizontal to vertical at any angle and reduces evaporation of liquid inks. Moreover, no current approach addresses the problem for storing a variety of different style pen caps, is simple and inexpensive to produce, and further does not require exerted force to remove the pen from the pen holder.
It is therefore an object of the invention to have a pen holder that mounts to any surface from horizontal to vertical.
It is another object of the invention to have a pen holder that accepts different size pens.
It is another object of the invention to have a pen holder that accepts different styles and configurations of pens.
It is another object of the invention to have a pen holder that accepts the attachment of pen caps.
It is another object of the invention to have a pen holder that minimizes the evaporation of the pen's ink.
It is another object of the invention to have a pen holder that is simple and inexpensive to fabricate.